THE STRAND IS QUEENSLAND'S CLEANEST BEACH 2003

The Strand in north Queensland has been named Queensland’s Cleanest
Beach for 2003.

The popular Townsville beach out performed 136 other strong contenders
from along the Queensland coastline and islands in the Keep Australia
Beautiful Council’s EPA Clean Beach Challenge.

The
Strand received its award and trophy from Queensland Environment Minister
Dean Wells and Olympic Beach Volleyball gold medallist Natalie Cook at
a State Awards event at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre,
and will now go on to represent Queensland in the 2004 Australian Clean
Beach Challenge in the new year.

As
well as the title of Queensland’s Cleanest Beach, eight Outstanding
Accomplishment Awards were presented:

Keep
Australia Beautiful Council (Qld) Inc Chief Executive Officer Barton Green
said that over the past few months, thousands of Queenslanders had been
working on environmental, conservation and anti-litter activities at their
favourite beaches.

“2003
is the sixth season of the EPA Clean Beach Challenge and it has become
obvious that beach communities are learning from the successes of beaches
in previous years - which means that the best beach management practices
in Queensland are being emulated right along the coast, which is terrific,”
Mr Green said.

“The
EPA Clean Beach Challenge is promoted as a fun competition, but the environmental
outcomes are seriously good for Queensland beaches and the communities
who use them.”

Mr
Green said The Strand was assessed as best exemplifying all the elements
of the EPA Clean Beach Challenge and was a deserving state winner.

"Our
judge said The Strand displays the highest standards across all the EPA
Clean Beach Challenge judging criteria and well deserves the honour of
being Queensland’s Cleanest Beach for 2003 and the Queensland challenger
for the title of Australia's Cleanest Beach 2004," he said.

Mr
Wells said the EPA Clean Beach Challenge was not solely about beautiful
beaches but about building community spirit and enthusiasm towards the
environment.

“Again,
this year’s high number of entries has highlighted the importance
our communities place on protecting their local environments,” he
said.

Mr
Wells said as the major sponsor of the Clean Beach Challenge the EPA was
extremely pleased with the program's continual results for the environment.

“Across
the state, more and more people are forming community groups to raise
the standard of their beaches and to protect some of Queensland’s
most valued natural assets for the future,” he said.

“Our
coastline has an international reputation for its beauty and the EPA Clean
Beach Challenge is a great way to recognise and reward motivated communities
and organisations who take good care of their favourite beaches and surrounding
areas.

"Congratulations
to all entrants in this year’s EPA Clean Beach Challenge."

The
Cleanest Beach Award takes into account a beach's geographic, environmental
and economic circumstances, and assesses how efficiently and effectively
the community uses the resources available to it against a range of criteria,
including tidiness and litter abatement, visitor friendliness and hospitality,
fauna and flora management activities, community interaction, youth activities,
resource conservation and waste management, and local government partnerships
within a community.

The
Strand, now four years old in its present form, has become a Townsville
icon and a focus of civic and community activity. The Strand offers excellent
visitor hospitality with its day- and evening-use facilities, four beaches
(two of them with seasonal stinger net enclosures), two Surf Life Saving
Clubs, fresh water swimming pools, water play area, children’s playgrounds,
fitness trail, fishing jetty, basketball court, amphitheatre, restaurants,
kiosks, gardens, parks, and permanent artwork. All facilities are wheelchair
accessible, including the beaches thanks to a 4WD motorised wheelchair.
Signage and printed information is clear and pleasant. The Strand is a
leader in effective resource conservation and waste and litter management
policies and practices, including storm water quality control, on-site
separation and multi-clearing of waste, beach sand sifting, water and
energy conservation, cleaning without chemicals, and associated education
and damage prevention programs. The Strand is a declared Dugong Protection
Area and a turtle nesting site. Active community and Townsville City Council
partnerships provide fauna monitoring and research; dune and other vegetation
is managed under a Vegetation Management Plan; and dune beach sands are
replenished regularly to ensure retention of their storm damage protection
role. The Strand has become a major, all-age recreational focus for close
to three million visitors each year, 69% of whom are local residents.
Community events and celebrations include festivals, services, parades,
competitions, regattas, concerts, weddings, markets, and arts and crafts
exhibitions. The Strand is consistently being ‘fine-tuned’
in response to proactive surveys and feedback, and has acted as a catalyst
for redevelopment and upgrading in the surrounding area. The Strand displays
the highest standards across all the EPA Clean Beach Challenge judging
criteria and well deserves the honour of being Queensland’s Cleanest
Beach for 2003 and the Queensland challenger for the title of Australia's
Cleanest Beach 2004.

This
award recognises the importance of visitor hospitality and safety, and
instructive and easily understood local information facilities.

Scarborough
Beach attracts huge numbers of locals and visitors each year and it's
easy to see why. Statuesque Norfolk Island Pines stand at attention above
the lovely beachfront and serve as a natural signpost to the adjacent
parkland with its shade shelters, barbecues, picnic tables, toilet facilities
and accessible car park. The range and quality of public amenities ensures
all visitors are well catered for. There is a skate half-pipe and basketball
court, but ask any young visitor what the best part is and they will be
sure to tell you - in an animated and enthusiastic response - the Pirate
Place and Railway Place. These two creative and impressive play areas
complement the gnarly old cottonwood trees which are just perfect for
climbing. To ensure all members of the community can enjoy these great
facilities, disabled access from the nearby carpark is currently being
improved, and security lighting, including solar powered lighting, keeps
the area well lit at night. Scarborough Beach and its parkland facilities
are impeccably maintained by Redcliffe City Council. The beach is mechanically
swept and the dune areas cleaned by hand, barbecues are steam cleaned,
bins regularly emptied and toilets kept hygienically clean. Peak times
can see toilets cleaned hourly. To help protect Moreton Bay, a gross pollutant
trap has been installed to capture litter before it reaches the beach
and Bay. Redcliffe City Council works hard to maintain this beach and
adjacent park and the result is a wonderful open space the whole community
can enjoy.

With
just 13 permanent residents and a growing number of weekend and holiday
visitors, there was a pressing need for a comprehensive waste management
and resource conservation strategy at Back Beach. After extensive public
consultation, Gladstone City Council recently installed a waste transfer
facility which allows refuse to be sorted, collected and removed from
the island and taken back to the mainland landfill. This service has put
an end to inappropriate disposal practices and allows residents and visitors
to recycle cardboard, plastics, glass, paper, aluminium, oil and batteries.
In the park areas, regularly cleaned litter bins are provided, and are
monitored by the Council’s Park Ranger. To minimise water use, automatic
shut off valves have been installed in the public composting toilets and
on water tanks. Energy use is managed through automatic timer switches
on the lighting at the Council-owned campground. Through the efforts of
the Gladstone Midday Rotary Club, South End Progress Association and Gladstone
City Council, weeds have been progressively removed and native trees planted
to restore vegetation along the foreshore. Inappropriate access points
to the beach have been closed through fencing and bollards, and the road
profile has been altered to provide maximum protection for the beach.
The investment by the council and community in sound resource conservation
and waste management practices at and around Back Beach means Curtis Island
will continue to provide an attractive and sustainable holiday option
for the region.

Sometimes
simple messages can be the most effective, and Noosa Council has one which
certainly fits the bill. “We swim in what you put in” is the
slogan used to great effect by the Council in an awareness program aimed
squarely at the source of litter. Through the cooperation of business
and community, litter at Noosaville Foreshore Park and beach is almost
non-existent. The Beverage Industry Environment Council's litter "hotspot
analysis” has been used effectively to appropriately site litter
bins in the area. Attractive vegetation barriers and carefully selected
garden plants, as well as shade cloth along fences, are used to capture
windblown litter, particularly plastic bags, before they enter the waterway.
The trial of a gross pollutant sock at the beach has provided the opportunity
to analyse the pollutants washed through stormwater drains so that corrective
action can be taken. Regular cigarette butt collection days, together
with the distribution of novel Butt-ya-bins, with the message “It’s
Laguna Bay not an ashtray”, help to develop community awareness
of this significant litter problem. A regional litter forum was held in
October, aimed at fostering a wider outlook on the awareness and management
of litter on the Sunshine Coast. It is through this combination of strategies,
and Noosa Council's commitment to litter prevention and management, that
Noosaville Foreshore Park is maintained as an attractive, litter free
area for families.

This
award recognises outstanding accomplishment by youth and by a beach/community
which encourages and promotes youth activity.

Some
time ago the students from Mueller College responded to a call for help
at Suttons Beach where a bit of personal care and attention was required.
The students from Years 9 and 10 at the College have since adopted the
beach and set about to improve it. A group of the enthusiastic young citizens
sacrifice their weekly sports afternoon to collect litter from Suttons
Beach and the adjacent park, with a particular focus on cigarette butts.
The Mueller College students have established a close relationship with
Redcliffe City Council and use their stewardship role to pass on relevant
information about safety issues or facilities which may need attention.
The students have also successfully lobbied Council for the installation
of cigarette butt bins, whose use they will monitor and then provide feedback
to the Council. This tremendous partnership between youth and council
will ensure a positive future for Suttons Beach.

This
award recognises outstanding partnership achievements by a local government
and its community.

Livingstone
Shire Council is establishing a bit of a reputation for its community
partnerships. In late October, the Council and Nerimbera State School
took out the State Local Government Leadership Award in Keep Australia
Beautiful's Comalco Green & Healthy Schools program for their great
partnership activities. Now it is the turn of the Kinka Beach community
and the Council to receive recognition for a range of activities designed
to protect and enhance this coastal area. Communication and education
are hallmarks of the excellent programs being undertaken by Livingstone
Shire Council in partnership with the Kinka Beach community. The Council's
appointment of a Coastcare Project Officer has provided a strong link,
and good understanding, between residents and the Council, and a Council
education program for volunteers includes a Coastal Dune Management Information
Booklet which stresses the importance of stable and naturally vegetated
dunes for coastline protection. Information forums and workshops run by
the Council, together with information delivered in letterbox drops, have
increased the knowledge of residents and empowered them to take on projects.
The formation of the Friends of Kinka Beach has seen a large section of
foreshore dune cleared of rampant lantana and other weeds, revegetated
and managed by local residents. The strong working relationship between
community and council has, and will, reap valuable rewards for Kinka Beach.

This
award recognises outstanding accomplishment in the protection of the local
natural environment and, specifically, the preservation of fauna and flora.

Holloways
Beach has been subjected to severe sand erosion and Cairns City Council
is addressing the problem with an intensive program of sand replenishment
and sand retention measures. In a partnership between the Cairns City
Council, Holloways Beach residents, the Beach Protection Authority and
the Environmental Protection Agency, a vegetation management plan is being
prepared for the foreshore, dunes and beach under the auspices of the
Marlin Coast Landscape Master Plan. Regular maintenance of foreshore areas,
including weeding, fertilising and mulching is undertaken by Cairns City
Council and local residents. The partnership has continued with this year’s
planting of local native trees and shrubs to assist with the development
of beachside habitats and wildlife corridors. The Tree Planting Group
has weeded the area adjacent to the Environment Centre at the northern
end of the beach, and has planted and established native trees. This privately-run
Centre operates programs for school students of all ages, promoting awareness
of coastal environments and conservation strategies. Recognition of the
value of the natural features at Holloways Beach has been demonstrated
by the retention and prominence of the ‘starling tree’, one
of the foreshore features, and by the fencing of remnant vegetation to
restrict public access to important wildlife habitats. Holloways Beach
has a strong commitment to activities and management practices that protect
and enhance the local natural environment.

Community
Action Award – Wavebreak Island (Gold Coast Region)

This
award recognises outstanding community organisation and pride –
expressed through civic, cultural and environmental activities.

Wavebreak
Island has won awards in the EPA Clean Beach Challenge for the past few
years, primarily on the strength of activities undertaken by Brisbane's
Padua College Environment Club and Gold Coast schools. Last year, the
Keep Australia Beautiful Council suggested the establishment of a "Friends
of Wavebreak Island" group to support the efforts of the schools.
KAB is pleased to acknowledge that Wavebreak Island has once again been
recognised in the EPA Clean Beach Challenge, this time, in part, because
of the efforts of the new Friends of Wavebreak Island group. The past
year has seen a large and very successful campaign to build community
support for this island and its beach, and to formalise that support with
the creation of the Friends group. Now, what was originally a pet project
of enthusiastic students has grown to become an ongoing project involving
people from a broad spectrum of the community. Local and state politicians
have recognised the merits of the activities and are offering their support.
The good work of south east Queensland school students has established
a solid foundation for broad, community based ownership of this popular
recreational area.

Beach
Spirit Award - Hay Point Beach (North Queensland Region)

This
award recognises coastal communities which are facing or have faced difficult
times, but which show outstanding commitment to solving problems by turning
them into opportunities.

Hay
Point Beach is a sweep of sand extending almost 2km from the headland
of Hay Point, and the coal loading terminal, towards the tug harbour and
the small township of Half Tide. A turtle nesting beach, it is backed
by an often steep, tree-covered dune and slope system. The beach and foreshore
have been highly degraded through human misuse and unchecked weed growth
over many years. But a group of Hay Point Services staff has volunteered
to rehabilitate the beach and the foreshore, within an existing vegetation
master plan. So far they have litter-picked the beach and foredune, begun
to clear lantana, prickly pear, guinea grass and other weeds, restricted
vehicle access to the beach by erecting barriers, and constructed a laddered
beach access. These endeavours, which form part of the Sarina Beaches
Habitat Rejuvenation Project, have the support of Hay Point Services and
are being assisted by advice and guidance from the neighbouring Louisa
Creek Progress Association and other coastal groups. This project was
born from a dogged determination to address past environmental neglect,
and the rehabilitation group appears undeterred by the extent of work
still to be done. Their positive attitude and efforts to date have already
had a noticeable effect on the health of the landscape and the quality
of the beach and foreshore.